Starting in 1904, Burma Railways received two classes of 4-6-0 locomotives with BESA standard boilers. While class J was built for mixed traffic, class K shown here was intended only for goods traffic. Up to 1914, a total of 75 class K locomotives were built by Nasmyth Wilson, North British and Stephenson. In World War I, 13 were sent to Mesopotamia and never returned to Burma.
From 1920, 34 superheated Ks have been built, of which seven were built in Germany by Rheinmetall. Also many locomotives of the original class K were superheated. With a total of 109, they were the second most numerous class of Burmese steam locomotives after class F. After World War II, around 30 were still in service. 